Spidey : 'Hey Ned,do you remember trying to kill me when you were the Hobgoblin,or was that Roderick Kingsley?'.

I suspect based on Hobgoblin Lives as well as rereading that attack by the assassins that killed Leeds (which should NOT HAVE WORKED if he really were the Hobgoblin) that Kingsley used Leeds at times as a stand in for meetings and other minor encounters, Kingsley as Hobgoblin is the one that would fight Spiderman.

Kingsley might brain twist his dupes into pretending to be Hobgoblin but would he really risk juicing them with the goblin formula?

The only fake Hobgoblin to fight Spidey using the serum was the one that recreated the formula under Kingsley's orders knowing it would explode in his face and empower him so that Kingsley could get all the tech data needed to fix the formula. Hmmm, can't remember after that fake was beaten....was he killed? Yep rechecked the issues, he was killed by Kingsley.

Remember: super strength is the augmentation of all the muscles of the body including the neck muscles. Could a strangle cord used by a normal human really kill someone with super strength?

Anyway as to the half-baked story of the annual:

Before the Ned clone that jackal/ben made apparently melted away at the end of that story he made a last minute call to Betty his wife/widow and says two words "Blood Creek".

Apparently before Ned went over the cuckoo's nest and became a fake Hobgoblin and met his end he was investigating a story about a statue that was created and placed in the park about a battle from the Revolutionary War that.....never happened.

Turns out long ago the leader of the shadow arm of the Maggia had the staute made of an explosive alloy and placed there as it is near City Hall and the courts....just in case justice gets a little too out of hand.

Of course now the boss knows the plan is compromised and wants to detonate it.

Of course he is stopped and Mayor Kingpin spins a cover story for the media as he too of course knew the true purpose of the statue.

A homeless man that Betty helped save that was seen in a few panels walks away at the end and removes his disguise to reveal that he is....Ned Leeds....

Quite likely the clone with all of Ned's memory/data and was looking out for Betty as she worked the story to bring closure.

It would take some serious retconning and crummy writing (oh that's never happened: Aunt May returning, the mephisto mindwipe, clone saga...) to explain that it was the real Ned Leeds and not a clone.

No, the original Ned is dead and should remain that way. The clone needs to melt away.